PYONGYANG, North Korea - If any hopes have been raised that the progress between the United States and Iran to halt Tehran's development of nuclear weapons could bring change in Pyongyang, North Korea has gone out of its way to thwart them.

WASHINGTON - Construction to upgrade North Korea's main rocket launch site now appears complete amid expectations in rival South Korea that a launch could take place in October, a U.S. research institute said Tuesday.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea - IOC coordination commission leader Gunilla Lindberg says organizers of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang are well poised to move from planning to operational mode with six months remaining before the first of the test events.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's quarterly growth slowed to the lowest in more than two years as a severe drought hit agriculture and an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome sapped consumption.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Tuesday that it's not interested in an Iran-type nuclear disarmament deal, saying it won't abandon its atomic weapons as long as the United States maintains hostile policies toward the country.

SEOUL, South Korea - The bitter fight between Samsung and an American hedge fund over a contentious takeover deal shows that South Korea needs to do more to protect shareholder rights, the country's top economic policymaker said Tuesday.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's top two political parties have each nominated a woman for president in 2016, a historic first signaling acceptance of female leadership and kicking off a campaign highlighted so far by clashing views on ties with rival China.

SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean government agent who was found dead in an apparent suicide left a note denying suspicion that the National Intelligence Service has been spying on South Koreans by intercepting cellphone and computer conversations, police said Sunday.

SEOUL, South Korea - A Samsung company on Wednesday removed online cartoons attacking a U.S. hedge fund's founder as a ravenous, big-beaked vulture after Jewish organizations protested similar smears in South Korea's media.

SEOUL, South Korea - More than 60 South Koreans, including two former navy chiefs of staff, have been indicted in an investigation into alleged corruption associated with numerous defense procurement projects, prosecutors said Wednesday.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea on Wednesday selected a Chinese-led consortium as a preferred bidder to salvage a sunken ferry that killed more than 300 people in April last year in one of the country's deadliest disasters in decades.